As laptops don’t seem likely to be replaced by other devices or form factors anytime soon, more companies are keen to cash in on them and existing manufacturers are revamping their line-ups and introducing new products regularly. In the midst of all this, Hong Kong-based company Nexstgo launched the Avita range of laptops in India earlier this year. At the launch, the company said that it was targeting students and young professionals who wanted functionality in good-looking devices. We recently reviewed one from the extensive Avita Liber range of laptops.

The laptop came in a functionally-designed box, which made it very easy to pack it away again. The laptop itself was very slim and compact-looking, but its weight was slightly more than what its looks would indicate. The review unit came in a colour that looked closest to lime green and it was definitely eye-catching. The top had the Avita branding etched in. Its form factor ensured that it could even slip into the smaller laptop bags that are meant to be carried by hand and not slung across. The brushed metal finish gave it a premium feel and the Liber did not disappoint on the looks front. The sides of the laptop have the charging port along with the regular USB and a headphone jack and card slot. It also had a mini HDMI port and Avita included a regular HDMI converter in the box as well.

On opening up the hinge, which was a tad tight but that could be a good thing in the long run, the first thing that strikes the eye is an unusually large trackpad. This could have been done for the design aesthetic or to improve functionality or both, and whether you like it or not is a personal call. But we found that the trackpad didn’t respond as well at times and some clicks took some extra clicking.

The keys are packed together well with the right amount of travel and we didn’t encounter any problems when typing. The letter ‘A’ on the keyboard mimics how the letter is written in the Avita brand name and that seemed a good branding touch. However, at this price point, we expected a back-lit keyboard and didn’t find that feature.

The speakers on the Avita Liber are not front-facing and are on the bottom of the device. They work all right when set on a table but on a pillow or a mattress, thanks to their positioning, most of the sounds get muffled out and we needed to use headphones or external speakers.

The full HD, 12.5-inch 1080 p display is easily one of the best aspects of the Avita Liber. In fact, the screen looked so good, we couldn’t help prod it with our fingers at times because it looked lovely enough to be a touchscreen. The slim bezels make it look even better and the screen real estate has been put to good use. Watching movies and videos and even gaming was a visual pleasure. Colour reproduction is sharp and vivid and the best part is that the colours did not look artificially over-saturated. Viewing angles were also accommodating.

As far as specs are concerned, the review unit was powered by an Intel Core i5 processor, but seventh gen. At this price, you would expect an eighth gen processor, which most other manufacturers give you. That being said, even the seventh gen processor is a capable one and we didn’t experience performance glitches. But using an eighth gen processor would have future-proofed the Liber for some more time. The laptop did, however, heat up considerably with continuous gaming or video watching and some of the heat was also felt on the keys. The 256 GB Solid State Drive and 8 GB of RAM ensured fast boot times and quick wake-ups from power-off and sleep/hibernation.

The laptop ran Windows 10 and we had to go through the usual annoying Cortana-assisted setting up process that Microsoft really needs to tweak. The laptop works just fine for a regular user’s daily work. We even tried photo-editing tools and it handled them well. Multi-tasking, MS Office, heavy Google Chrome use are all handled well.

On the battery front, the Avita Liber could have done slightly better. With streaming, the battery ran out in just less than four hours. But what is even more an annoyance is the long time that the battery takes to get charged to full. We had to resort to charging it overnight when not in use. This is something that Avita needs to improve on, especially if their target customers are students.

Overall, the Avita Liber comes across as a good introductory product but the company needs to address its shortcomings in new models if it is to become a serious contender.

Price: ₹67,190 (i5 seventh gen, 256 GB SSD, 8 GB RAM)

Pros: Good looks, easily portable, good performance, nice display

Cons: Battery life and long charging time, older processor, bottom-placed speakers

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